Hello everyone,
This week, my son wanted us to do this activity because he had seen it elsewhere so he was a bit upset that he didnt participate in the process.
I promised him we'll do it together at home and out of nothing, we had some work to do! But I'm telling you, this was so relaxing for me. We spent about one hour on the table, molding play doh and having long conversations and dialogs about planets and universe.
I really enjoyed this time with Caleb thats why I invite you to try it.
I forgot how easy and yet, how beneficial can be to play/work with plasticine.
Playdough is one of the most versatile materials you can have at home, at any moment.
They helps you create pretty much anything. A lot of skills are in game, for example problem solving, concentration, fine motor skills, imagination, visual representation and development.
Plus, it's well known that play doh helps children relax and also, for being a stress killer. Same with kinetic sand, colored rice or slime.
For Caleb, Planets and Universe are not new concepts. We started to read about them long time ago, when he was just 2 and a half, maybe 3.
He was in love with Planets and he used to be so patience at that fragile age, he would have sit next to me until I would have read to him a whole book called My first book of the Cosmos, a National Geographic book series.
And tis book is not short, I'm telling you! He knew so well this book that he would have tell me where to open the book. He knew every planet on what page it is. And not just planets, very information he would know at what page to find it. I remained blank 😶😶 when Caleb first tell me to open the book at page 63 and read about Uranus.
I was like ... whaT the....?...🧐😱
Anyways, other than just playing with play doh and reproducing the Planets, we read about them and learnt some new things.
I love to have some books as reference. Many of our activities are based on what we see and learn from books.
Playdough Planets
As you can see in the images, this avtivity is not a complex one. You just need to sit down and enjoy a good quality time with your children.
For this activity, you'll need a mandarine (an orange or lemon works too) and playdoh.
Just form the planets using playdough and then insert them on a toothpick.
The mandarine wants to be The Sun, as you already figured it out.
If You're using a lemon or a small citrus, you should know that the planets can't be big. Else they'll fall down and the fruit will not stand.
Lets make Learning Fun
Fine Motor Skills, Concetration and
Visual Representation are the major skills to develop with this activity.
Kids need to reflect on that object they're making and their properties and attributes in order to create and represent an accurate reflection of that object. This is a very important cognitive skill they have to develop and become better at.
Ohh and by the way, **You'll see 9 planets instead of 8. **
Thats because Caleb really wanted to add Pluto as well, even though Pluto its not considered a big Planet anymore.
But he knows that once were 9 planets, Pluto included so he really wanted to make it.
He is a cutie when it comes to small things so I'm guessing he got attached with it for being a tiny little planet.
We started by making the round planets. Caleb was the one to chose the colors. I guided him regarding the size. (Cause he wanted to make them as bigger as possible). 😄
But after I told him that we need to create them compared with their real size and to try respect the size compared one planet to another, he understood what I meant.
His favorite part was to use the toothpick and insert it into the mandarine.
I kept to read from the books while he was making the planets.
Also we both analyzed the planets in the books: their color, their size, their position in the Solar System.
We repeated the information that we learned already, some facts about every planet.
I think, overall it was a cool activity and whats more important, we had a great time together!
I hope you liked our activity and maybe try it yourself at home.
If you dont have books about the planets, thats not a problem. You can watch a documentary together on your phone or print some interesting facts and images about them.
Or even coloring is a good ideea. You can color them together after reading about them.
I'm sure you'll find ways to make it work. 😉
Have a wonderful week!
Missdeli 💛